Certain vehicles, buildings, watercraft, and other structures may be subjected to periodic physical inspections that monitor the health of various components within the structures. For example, commercial aircraft may be routinely inspected to confirm, for example, structural integrity. Structural inspections of commercial aircraft are usually performed manually and, therefore, can be labor intensive and costly, especially if a large fleet of aircraft is being maintained. The prior art includes a variety of sensor systems designed to obtain data indicative of potential structural defects. Such systems, however, do not process the sensor data over time for purposes of trending, reporting, forecasting remaining lifetime, and scheduling maintenance. Furthermore, the prior art does not include a “self-contained” onboard structure health monitoring system that can be deployed in an aircraft.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an onboard structure health monitoring system configured for self contained deployment on an aircraft. In addition, it is desirable to have a structure health monitoring system that processes sensor data over time in connection with damage assessments. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.